Realm of the Mad God: The Tale of Gold
by K0nkiki-Yami
Summary: Gold, a Paladin of the purest kind seeks knowledge for his only remaining memory of what happened before Oryx trapped him in a loop of life and death. Many adventures await, but will they all be the best?...
1. Awakening

**STORY**

**Chapter 1: Awakening**

I open my eyes to face blinding white walls and countless people: most if not all identical to each-other, the last thing I remember was the Mad God's words booming around the wine filled walls of his cellar: "Puny mortals! I shall return, but first I will sacrifice myself to live forever, trapping you in a cycle of infinite lives and deaths" The feeling of ice water being poured down my back feels like it happened a second ago, I shudder at the thought. "Hey you, what's wrong: Beach Snake got your tongue?" I turn towards the happy voice and see a tall blonde girl, bow on her back and assorted traps strung around her waist. I blushed as I noticed that she was wearing a short skirt. "Well, what happened" she looked at me impatiently crystal-blue eyes piercing into me, "Sorry, I was a bit…..distracted, yes I'm fine I just don't feel well". "Well get up then, the Realm isn't going to save itself!" the girl holds out her hand to help me up, I take hold of her and am shocked by how soft her hands were. I send a word of thanks her way and she starts to walk me towards several cave looking holes in the distance. "Those are the Realm Portals, walk into one of those and you will end up in the Mad God's world: it's full of monsters, loot, loot and more importantly…." She looked at me as if I was supposed to answer. "Ummm, loot?" I said questioningly. "No, it's full of other people! If they weren't there, you'd die". She led me to one of the portals and walked me into it. "I will stick with you, maybe we will make a good team: you can get up close and I will take out the stragglers" The prospect of death seems like it does not phase her. "Umm, sure...sounds good to me". Soon after entering the Realm the duo encounter a large, black scorpion surrounded by smaller, yellow ones. "That's a Scorpion Queen, they won't hurt you too much, and the smaller scorpions pack a punch in large groups like this one". I draw my sword and start walking towards the Scorpions when a pure white sphere soars over my head, it lands on the ground in front of the Queen and instantly sprouts razor thin wires that tangle the Scorpions, the wires cut clean through the smaller ones while the cables only seemed to slow the large Queen. "What was that!?" I yell towards the tall girl, she replies with a laugh and turns towards me brandishing her traps, she Scorpion Queen makes some sort of gurgling noise and spits a glob of poison my way. I bring the sword to my face in an attempt to block the acidic blast, I missed and the burning liquid landed on my left arm, melting the gauntlet and scalding my arm in the process. I groaned in pain and with inhuman strength plunged my blade into the red eyes of the Scorpion, changing the shiny silver of my sword to a full blood red. I turned to my companion and showed her a weak smile of victory when she called out to me: "Don't look at me, you have to watch what happens when it dies!" I was confused by this statement so I doubled back to watch the spectacle that was unfolding, the dying scorpion was burning into ashes and arising from the pile that used to be the Scorpion Queen was a sack of some sorts: brown with a black string tying the open end. "Quick! Open it up and see what's inside" my chirpy friend cheered. So I untie the string and plunge my hand into its depths and pull out a bow: made of Greywood, a common building material used in the world I remember, I hand it to the bubbly blonde girl striding towards me. She beams and takes the bow from my hands gratefully "Thankyou so much, I would thank you properly but I don't know your name" She looked at me inquisitively, I thought hard about it then replied "I….I don't remember, I honestly don't remember much after.." "AGH" I grasp my head in pain as I recall the Mad God's words. "Well I'm Verde, and since you can't remember your name we can call you….." And after a thought she chirped happily "Gold, we can call you Gold. After your armour" She pointed towards my suit of damaged sun-coloured plates, worn by many of the people I saw in the Nexus, I don't know how I knew it was called that. "Sounds good Verde, nice to meet you" I held out my hand to greet her, and she ignored my outstretched hand and instead threw her arms around me, embracing me in a full hug. ''Good job Gold, congratulations on your kill" she then added "Welcome to the Realm of the Mad God"

Welcome to review and comment, if you like it I will post the next chapter. Bye for now :)


	2. The Ropes

After the initial high of my first kill wore off I realised it was night time and Verde had started a fire to cook some of the Rabbits we found following us around, we had to cook them alive otherwise they would turn to ash like the Scorpions. Verde had also cleaned my wound with forest leaves and bandaged it in tough but soft vines that she had gathered from a Maze made of nothing but plants and trees. "Hey Gold?'' she asked me "Do you think you can see someone over there?" she pointed to a suspicious looking clump of bush about ten meters in the distance, I was about to confirm her question when a Goblin Warrior rushed out at us: teeth bared, arms flailing its wrought-iron sword above its head. Verde clung to my arm as I stood to draw my sword, now a Rapier that we came across while Rabbit hunting. But before it could get close to us a dagger made of pure gold sprouted from its chest, the Goblin fell to reveal a small girl of about 12: covered in blood and cuts on her stomach deep and flowing with blood, she then collapsed with a shudder. "We have to help her!" Verde almost yelled in my ear, I got up and ran to the girl and started to console her "Are you ok? Just breathe slowly, everything will be alright" Verde grabbed my belt and pulled off the buckle: a small, round, blue disk with a holy insignia inscribed on the face. "Use this quickly!" I was confused but I took the Seal from her hands and suddenly I knew what to do. I raised the seal into the air and with a commanding voice I spoke: "Oh Great Divines, if it is your will to help this poor child of yours. Then use my magic as a catalyst to heal her!" And with the last word spoken, blue veins of electricity flowed up my arms and into the seal, creating a bright burst of light. The last thing I saw was the girl open her eyes and throw her arms around me, she was completely healed. I woke to the sound of birds chirping and the sound of sizzling, Verde was cooking "rabbit bacon" as she called it on an Iron Shield. Awake but drowsy was the little girl, bandages encompassed her torso and I blushed and looked away as I realised her torso was exposed. She spoke to me in a weak voice: "It's ok, I'll just put my cloak back on", "No, I'm sorry, I didn't know that you were.." I never finished the sentence because I couldn't find the words to say. Verde looked at me and said "I just finished changing her wrappings, she was hurt really badly you know. You saved her life, oh and breakfast is ready by the way". Happy to be eating after my draining activities the night before I took a haunch in my hands thankfully and began to strip the meat from its bones, after finishing my hearty meal I stepped over to the young girl. After a bit of thought I awkwardly said to her "Are you ok?" She looked at me with eyes as wide as dinner plates, in the softest voice "My stomach hurts, and you saw me partly naked. But aside from that I am ok, glad you helped me. Because I've been following you for hours" Verde looked astonished, and was absolutely speechless. "How did you do that without us knowing?" She fumbled with her words as they fell out of her mouth. "It was easy actually, there were a few times where I was walking in clear sight and I was still invisible" The young Rogue replied. With the end of her sentence Verde suddenly perked up and almost yelled the words: "Of course! It was her cloak, the ability of Rogues is for the user become invisible for a short time at the cost of some of his/her magic, It's a very effective ability to kill some of the more dangerous enemies in the Realm.


	3. Moving Forward

**Chapter 3: Moving Forward**

With our new companion Willow in tow, the three of us set out towards a "Horned Drake": the next quest we had to overcome. It was quite a task, we ran into a group of Goblin Mages along the way, but with Verde's arrows, my sword and Willows dagger combined with her cloak. The Goblins were no match for the strength of teamwork, from the bags they dropped I received some new armour to replace my damaged plates, Blue Steel Mail Verde called it. There was also a Ring of Dexterity which when I put it on: I felt my arms flow with speed, making my sword swing faster. I offered it to Verde and Willow but the happy Huntress refused politely and Willow just lifted her hand to show me a small gold ring with a pink gemstone sunk into it:

"A Ring of Greater Health, that's how I survived all of those attacks on my way here" I was going to reply but we heard a mighty roar in the distance, the Drake had arrived…

The bushes in front of us parted to make way for a huge, green lizard like creature: ivory horns glistening in the sun, and trailing behind it was what looked to be a baby Drake. I readied my sword and seal, Verde nocked an arrow and Willow slid her dagger from its sheath and pulled her Cloak of the Night Thief over her head: making her suddenly vanish from view, seconds later the Horned Drake had multiple stab wounds on its soft underbelly. I stood bewildered as the two girls lost themselves in the heat of battle: Willow standing by a tree waiting for her magic reserve to come back before Cloaking again, and Verde standing tall: firing arrow after arrow at the Horned Drake, occasionally throwing a trap to slow it down. I activated the seal when I was close to my friends, giving them quick Healing as well as extra Damage: an ability Verde told me about. With my sword infused with power and the cover of my friends I charged towards the Drake and swung, taking off one of its front legs. The Drake screamed and thrashed out with its tail: knocking me over and knocking the wind out of me, when Verde caught sight of me lying on the ground she yelled in anger and threw all of her traps at once: razor-wire encompassing the bulk of the creature and causing rivers of blood to flow from its hide. Still in her fit of rage Verde sent a single arrow flying through the air, almost in slow motion the sharp tip pierced through the Drake's left eye: puncturing its brain and delivering the final blow. With the parent dispatched and Willow standing on the back of the Baby Drake: dagger in hand and eyes glistening with bloodlust slits the throat of the scaly child. After recovering from being winded I glance up to see Verde's hand vanish from existence into the ground.

"Verde, your hand.. it's… its gone!" she looks at me and bursts into a fit of laughter

"Hahahaha, no It's not gone. I just got what's called souldbound drops, only I can see it" to confirm her statement her arm raises and brings with it a green seal which is tossed to me. "See, I told you that Its not gone, that's a Seal of the Aspirant: It shall serve you well if you use it like your current seal."

After saying a quick prayer to my old seal, the one I woke up with. I placed it onto the ground where it was instantly wrapped up by one of those brown sacks, swallowing it into its mystical depths. We pushed forward past the destroyed scrub when, resounding all around us: the Mad God's voice is heard

"Fools! My forest of 3 Ent Ancients will protect me forever!"


End file.
